Mythology

Festive Tasks: Door 9, Task 3 – Here Be Dragons

November 17, 2021

Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE Task 3: The Chinese Lunar Calendar is based on cycles of the moon and the sun. Next year’s animal sign is the Sign of the Tiger, which means that babies born in 2022 are predicted to be “brave, competitive, unpredictable and confident.” What was the animal sign of […]

Fun and Games Lifestyle Literature

Festive Tasks: Door 1, Task 4 – Walled in by Books

November 1, 2021

Master Update Post HERE Task 4: Australia has the world’s longest fence, the dingo fence, which at 3,436 miles (5529.7 kilometres) beats the Great Wall of China. Using an average of 12 books / meter, or 4 books / foot as a guide, if you had to build a fence of your own to […]

Literature Music Reviews

May 2021 Reading Recap

June 6, 2021

Still a lot of work on the back end of the blog, including on my “featured authors” pages (see the right column on the main Literature page and the introduction of my April 2021 recap post). So, contrary to plans, still no new posts in my alphabet blogging series in May. However, the time-consuming back end […]

Literature Reviews

Ursula K. Le Guin: Lavinia

June 6, 2021

The final six books of Vergil‘s Aeneid (half the epic’s length, until its abrupt and arguably premature ending) deal with Aeneas’s arrival in Latium and the hostilities ensuing after the Latian king, obeying a prophecy, promises his only daughter Lavinia’s hand to the Trojan warrior. Now, this being a heroic epos setting out to chronicle […]

Blog Lifestyle

An Alphabet of My Likes and Dislikes: “U”

March 25, 2021

This is a post belonging to a new blogging project — the title is pretty much self-explanatory, I think; the project’s introductory post can be found HERE. Credit for the idea: BeetleyPete. As always, the only thing linking the two items mentioned in this post in my mind is that they both start with the […]

Blog Cooking - Food - Drink Lifestyle

An Alphabet of My Likes and Dislikes: “E”

January 9, 2021

Fun and Games Literature Reviews

A.S. Byatt: Ragnarok

November 1, 2020

I decided to go with Byatt’s take on Ragnarök for the “Doomsday” Halloween Bingo square, because let’s face it, doomsday doesn’t get anymore terrifying than in Norse mythology — and I am glad that Byatt, for one, didn’t try to humanize the Norse deities, as so many other authors do in their attempt to make […]

Cats Fun and Games Literature Reviews

Halloween Bingo 2020: The Rest of the Game and Wrap-Up

November 1, 2020

Sooo, that’s another bingo game behind us already! Many thanks to our game hosts for successfully moving the game from BookLikes to a new venue and organizing one heck of a game despite that venue’s built-in limitations. I had a great time and would only have wished I could have participated more throughout the game […]

BookLikes Imports Fun and Games Linked Items Literature

Favorite Trolls and Gnomes

December 30, 2019

24 Festive Tasks: Door 16 – St. Lucia’s Day, Task 3: Trolls, gnomes, dwarves and similar beings (some evil, some less so, almost all of them mischievous) are a staple of Scandinavian mythology and folklore, as well as other folklores and mythologies around the world and, of course, fantasy and speculative fiction. Who is your […]

BookLikes Imports Fun and Games Linked Items Literature

Favorite Dragons from Fiction and Mythology

December 30, 2019

24 Festive Tasks: Door 5 – Bon Om Touk, Task 3: Dragons and dragon-like serpents (imugi) are important to Korean mythology (as they are to that of other Asian peoples). So – which are your favorite literary dragons (fictional, mythological, whatever)? First things first: shout-out to the resident Fierce and Friendly Dragon! And speaking […]

BookLikes Imports Fun and Games Linked Items Literature

Books Shipped Long Distance

December 27, 2019

24 Festive Tasks: Door 16 – St. Lucia’s Day, Task 4: The historic (3d century AD) St. Lucia was Italian; yet, like those of many other saints (including, e.g., St. Andrew and St. Nicholas), the most important celebrations of her holiday don’t occur in her place of origin but somewhere else in the world. List […]

BookLikes Imports Fun and Games Linked Items Literature Reviews

Agatha Christie: Star Over Bethlehem

December 10, 2019

24 Festive Tasks: Door 24 – Epiphany, Book: Read a book featuring three main characters, about traveling on a journey to a faraway place, a book that’s part of a trilogy, with a star on the cover, with the word “twelve” or “night” in the title, or concerning kings or spices. Well, most of […]

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Books With Antonyms in Their Titles

November 30, 2019

24 Festive Tasks: Door 5 – Bon Om Touk, Task 4: The South Korean flag features images of ying / yang (the blue and red circle in the center) and four sets of three black lines each representing heaven, sun, moon and earth and, in turn, the virtues humanity, justice, intelligence and courtesy. Compile a […]

BookLikes Imports Fun and Games Linked Items Literature Reviews

Redeeming Renée Ahdieh’s “The Wrath and the Dawn”

November 18, 2019

24 Festive Tasks: Door 7 – International Day for Tolerance, Task 1: Find a redeeming quality in a book you read this year and didn’t like. I’ve never understood the rave reviews that this book is getting, but then, I’m not its target audience; and I suppose if you read it as a straight-up […]

BookLikes Imports Cats Cooking - Food - Drink Fun and Games Lifestyle Linked Items Literature

Halloween Bingo 2019: Tracking Post — Blackout! (And bingos Nos. 12 and 13.)

October 30, 2019

Many thanks to Moonlight Reader and Obsidian Blue for hosting this game for the fourth year in a row, bigger and better than ever before! Witih today’s call, I’ve blacked out my card, in addition to collecting my final bingos (nos. 12 and 13). Somewhat to my surprise, after completing my books for my […]